Coronavirus should be a priority, not CAA, says Nitish

PATNA: Bihar Chief Ninister Nitish Kumar on Friday made an oblique reference to his stand on Citizenship Amendment Act which the Centre is hinting to implement in the country after coronavirus abates.

Nitish Kumar, while reacting to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement on the issue, said that the way cases of coronavirus are increasing in the country, he should concern himself on a prevention plan.

“The way cases are increasing in the country, it is a biggest challenge for us. They should have to look after its prevention. We will think about any policies that would come before us,” he said.

His statement indicates that he wants to wait for the decision of the Centre on CAA implementation, before disclosing his plan of action.

The CAA, NRC and Uniform Civil Code are the three issues on which the stand of Nitish Kumar is different from the BJP, and are responsible for sour political relations between them despite they being alliance partners in Bihar and the Centre.

Nitish Kumar’s JD-U believes that if it would support the BJP on these three issues, it would deeply hurt its minority vote bank. On the other hand, BJP wants to apply pressure on JD-U to support these measures.

Amit Shah on Friday said that the Centre will implement CAA in the country after the fourth wave of pandemic gets over.